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From Elite to Class: The Transformation of Iraqi Leadership, 1920–1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

David Pool
David Pool
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, Manchester, England
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of the pre-1958 political system in Iraq based on explanatory factors which are relevant to an understanding of the nature of similar pre-radical regimes in other Arab States and to an understanding of how and why such political systems were transformed. In order to understand the qualitative nature of the systemic change in the Arab States in the twentieth century it is essential to move away from concepts like “traditional” and “modern” and the rise of “new men” or “new social forces.” To explain how one kind of political system changed to another one requires the abstraction of those features which indicate the positive rather than residual attributes of that earlier system. Indeed some recent studies have attempted to do this, with analytic and conceptual awareness.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , November 1980 , pp. 331 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

Author's note: For comments on an earlier draft of this article which was part of a doctoral dissertation presented to Princeton University in 1972, I should like to thank Professor Manfred Halpern and Professor John Batatu.

1 Most of the writing on Iraq has been of the descriptive historical type and as such has not attempted to explain or analyse. The works of Longrigg, S., Iraq 1900–1950 (Oxford 1953),Google Scholar and Majid, Khadduri, Independent Iraq, 2nd edition (Oxford 1960), do however provide excellent background for more analytic studies.Google Scholar

2 See especially John, Waterbury, Commander of the Faithful (London, 1970)Google Scholar a behavioural attempt to define the qualitative nature of the functioning of the Moroccan political system, and El, Baki Hermassi, Leadership and National Development in North Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), an excellent political sociology study of change in North Africa.Google Scholar

3 This situation was not simply one caused by Ottoman land policy, which will be discussed below, but by the effect of culturally and socially hostile groups competing for power and privilege in a new system. The received wisdom on role of the Shī'ī in Ottoman state was one of isolationism whereas the establishment of the mandate saw a vigorous participation by Shī'ī of all social levels.

4 The 1920 insurrection in Iraq helped establish the strength of the tribal shaykhs in the mind of the British. See Amal, Vinogradov, “The 1920 Revolt in Iraq Reconsidered: The Role of Tribes in National Politics,”International Journal of Middle East Studies, 3 (1972), 123–129.Google Scholar

5 Busch, B. C., Britain, India and the Arabs, 1914–1921, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971), p.175.Google Scholar This is probably an exaggeration based on an examination of the British records. Ibrahīm al-Rāwī, who was a P.O.W. in India states quite clearly that he and his comrades well knew where they were going since an emissary of the Sharīf was acting as translator and informing them of events in Arabia (Min al-Thawra al-'Arabīyya al-Kubra Ila al-'Iraq at Hadīth, Dhikrayāt [Beirut, 1969[, p. 19).Google Scholar

6 See Phebe, Marr, “Iraq's Leadership Dilemma: A Study in Leadership Trends, 1948–1968,” Middle East Journal, 24 (Summer 1970), 297–298, for statistics on political survival for the period 1948–1958.Google Scholar

7 Alī, Jawdat, Dhikrayāt 1900–1958 (Beirut, 1967), p.18.Google Scholar

8 ibid.

9 al-Rāwī, , Min al-Thawra, p.9.Google Scholar

10 Tālib, Mushtāq, Awrāq Ayyāmī 1900–1958 (Beirut, 1968), p.36 (my translation).Google Scholar

11 Ernest, Dawn, “The Rise of Arabism in Syria,” Middle East Journal, 16 (Spring, 1962), 145–168.Google Scholar

12 Dawn's general conclusion that the Syrian nationalists came from the “indigenous Arab elite” contrasts with the evidence for Iraq.

13 Many studies have emphasised these factors, ranging from P. J. Vatikiotis' study of the ties binding the Egyptian Free offices to M. Van Dusen's study of the emergence of the Ba'ath in Syria (Vatikiotis, P. J., The Egyptian Army in Politics [Bloomington, Ind. 1961[;Google ScholarVan Dusen, M., “Political Integration and Regionalism in Syria,” Middle East Journal, 26 (Summer, 1972), 123–136.Google Scholar

14 See Szyliowicz, J. S., “Elite Recruitment in Turkey: The Role of the Mülkiye,” World Politics, 3 (04, 1971), 371–398. Seventy-two percent of those who attended this college between 1859 and 1907 were the sons of bureaucrats, the element corresponding partially to Dawn's “indigenous Arab elite.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 There were, of course, some members of urban bourgeois families, like Tawfiq al-Suwaidī, from a bureaucratic land-owning family.

16 Faysal to Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Expeditionary Force, Report Received 17.3.1919, p.143, F.O. 371/4199.

17 See Alī, Jawdat, Dhikrayat, p.89, and Tawfīq, al-Suwaydī, Mudhakkirātī (Beirut, 1969), p.57.Google Scholar

18 “Memorandum on the Future of Mesopotamia,” January 1919, F.O. 371/4150.

19 Minutes of a Meeting of the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet, 27 November 1918, p.13298, F.O. 371/4148.

20 Confidential Report for Week Ending 19.17.1919, No.134386, 27 September 1919, F.O.371/4150. The individuals referred to are Nŭrī al-Sa'īd and Ja'far al-'Askarī, both of whom were many times prime minister.

21 Minute by Young, H. W., 24 06 1920, F.O. 371/5075.Google Scholar

22 Busch, , Britain, India and the Arabs, 1914–1921, p. 361.Google Scholar

23 ibid., p.455.

24 Some, like Tahsīn al-Qadrī and Rustam Haydar, were Lebanese or Syrian.

25 Because of the wildness of parts of the country, the poor communications and the lack of an effective Iraqi army, the central government depended on the mobility of the Royal Air Force to curb the southern Shī'ī and northern Kurdish tribesmen.

26 He frequently depended on intermediaries like the Amir Zayd to convey messages to anti-British elements.

27 Interview with Faisal, in High Commissioner to S. of S. for Colonies, 26 August 1922, p.42829, L/PS/10 782.

28 The best source on the political economy of tribal Iraq is still John, Batatu, “Shaykh and Peasant in Iraq 1917–1958” Ph.D. dissertation (Harvard University 1960).Google Scholar See also the useful Iraq and the Persian Gulf, Geographical Handbook series, Naval Intelligence (London, 1944).Google Scholar Two anthropological studies of Iraqi tribes and tribal leaders are Fernea, R.A., Shaykh and Effendi: Changing Patterns of Authority among the El-Shabana of Soul hem Iraq (Cambridge, Mass., 1970)Google Scholar and Salim, S. M., Marsh Dwellers of the Euphrates Delta (London, 1962).Google Scholar The major reference work is 'Abbās, al-'Azzāwi, Tārīkh 'Ashāir al-'Ir'q, 4 vols. (Baghdad, 1952–1956).Google Scholar

29 P.O. Nasiriya to Deputy Civil Commissioner, Basra, 4 January 1918, Administrative Department of the Basra Wilayat, No. 105/3, Annex.

30 As the P.O. in Hilla noted: “At present [1918” the tribe is the readiest medium to hand through which to carry on the administration of the district” (Reports of the Administration of the Occcupied Territories: Mesopotamia for 1918, p.120), F.O. 371/4151.Google Scholar

31 This is an impression gained from reading the weekly and monthly diaries of Political Officers, memoirs and private papers.

32 Capt. A. H. Ditchburn, Administrative Report for the Muntafik Division, Enclosure in S. for India to S. of S., 18 Oct. 1920, E 12851, F.O. 371/4151.

33 See 'Abd, al-Jalīl al-Zīhir, Al-'Ashāir al-'Irāqīya (Beirut: Dār Lubnān, 1972).Google Scholar

34 See the correspondence in “Co-operation with Fahad Bey ibn Hadhdhal,” Confidential No.883 to Chief Political Officer 16 May 1917, Air 20/504.

35 Reports of the Administration, p.375. F.O. 371/4151.Google Scholar

36 One donum =.6 acre.

37 Muhammed, Fadhil al-Jamali, The New Iraq: The Problem of Bedouin Education (London, 1973), p.43, and Intelligence Report No.18, 1 August 1921, E 10162, F.O. 371/6352.Google Scholar

38 Mesopotamia: Future Constitution, Cabinet B 317 p.2023/19, Enclosure No.2, Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, to Secretary of State for India 10 November 1918 P 6042, F.O. 371/4148.

39 See speech of Major Norbury in Monthly Reports of Political Offices for 1919 Norbury, 19 April 1920, F.O. 371/5072.

40 See Reports in F.O. 371/5071 to F.O. 371/5078.

41 Copy of Confidential Memorandum in Central Baghdad Archives.

42 The best analysis of land and the derivative socio-political relations is the unfortunately unpublished dissertation by John Batatu, “Shaykh and Peasant in Iraq.”

43 “Note on Land Policy” in Revenue Circular (Baghdad, 29 05 1919), Enclosure in India Office to Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 10 September 1919, p.127607, F.O. 371/4150.Google Scholar

44 This area was populated by the Fatla, the Banī Hasan and the Banī Huchaim, each of which had numerous, well-armed followers.

45 See Albertine, Jwaideh, “The Sanniyah Lands of Sultan Abd al-Hamid II in Iraq,” Arab and Islamic Studies in Honour of Sir Hamilton Gibb (London, 1965). Amara Province is of particular importance for there and in Kut Shaykhly dominance and oppression reached their zenith.Google Scholar

46 “Note on Land Policy.”

47 ibid.

48 See SirAylmer, Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia 1920 (Edinburgh, 1920), Appendix VI, for an estimate of the number of armed men in the tribal areas.Google Scholar

49 Abbas, Alnasrawi, Financing Economic Development in Iraq (New York 1967), pp. 129–130.Google Scholar

50 Langley, K., The Industrialization of Iraq, Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs (Cambridge, Mass. 1961), pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

51 In the 1930s capital investment in pumps was £5.5 million which, though not a large figure, contrasts with £i million in industrial capital investments.

52 ibid., p.68

53 See Phebe, Marr, “Yasin al-Hashimi: The Rise and Fall of a Nationalist,” Ph.D. Dissertation (Harvard University, 1968) for an account of his career.MGoogle Scholar

54 Alnasrawi, , Financing Economic Development in Iran, p.65.Google Scholar

55 Fuad, Baali, Relation of the People to the Land in Southern Iraq, University of Florida Monographs (Gainesville, Fla., 1966), pp. 29–33.Google Scholar

56 Mulhiq li Jarīda al-Waqā' al-'Ir'qīyyā 26 12 38, 23, 01 39, 30 01 39. For detailed references to the distribution of land in the Government Gazettes see Mohammad alSuwari, al-lqtā' fī Līwā' al-Kût (Feudalism in the Province of Kut) 1958, no place of publication.Google Scholar

57 Appendix A to Nasiriya Report, Administration Report, Revenue Board (Baghdad: Government Press, 1918), p.393, F.O. 371/4150.Google Scholar

58 Doreen, Warriner, Land Reform and Development in the Middle East (London, 1957), p.142.Google Scholar

59 For details of the deputies see 'Abd, al-Razzāq al-Hasanī, Tārīkh al-Wizārt al-'Ir āqīyya, Vols. 1–9 (Lebanon: Saida, various dates); for landownership see Warrier, Land Reform, and F.O., C.O. and Air files in Public Records Office, London.Google Scholar

60 Max, Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. Wright, From Max Weber, Essays in Sociology (London, 1948), p. 86.Google Scholar

61 Memorandum by Sir Henry Dobbs, CO. 730/40465/56, 1927.

62 This was the Dyala Cotton Plantations Ltd ('Asfār Concession). Parts I and II, 40012, C.O. 730/108, 1927.

63 AI-Hāshimī was said never to have paid taxes (S.S.O. to ASI Hinaidi, 6 October 1931, 1/BD/23, 70.A Air, 23/ 382.